The Film
A HOLLYWOOD ACTOR ON A SEARCH
FOR TRANSCENDENCE AND MEANING
DISCOVERS A MAGIC MOUNTAIN
IN JOSHUA TREE
THAT BIRTHS A MYTH.
From the late 1950s through to his death in 2011, TED MARKLAND, a hard-living character actor (and star of THE HIGH CHAPARRAL) seeking spiritual enlightenment, ferried famous friends and acquaintances from Hollywood and beyond—among them, LENNY BRUCE, STEVE MCQUEEN, JACK NICHOLSON, TIMOTHY LEARY, DONOVAN, DENNIS HOPPER, GRAM PARSONS
and the ROLLING STONES—out to a remote mountain in JOSHUA TREE for life-changing
dark-to-dawn peyote trips, during which he played the role of pied piper, medicine man,
spirit guide and guru.
MARKLAND MOUNTAIN is the story of that mountain.
17th/18th Century Tibetan Mandala.
Public domain image.Collection of LACMA
Emerging from a generation of
actors who got their start in the
Western TV serials of the '50s and
'60s—including Dennis Hopper,
James Coburn, John Drew Barrymore
and Warren Oates—Ted Markland went
on to appear in such notable films as The
Last Movie, The Hired Hand, One Flew
Over The Cuckoo's Nest and Another 48 Hours.
Prior to that he worked as a folk-singing
stand-up comedian in the coffehouses on the
Sunset Strip, as a protégé of Lenny Bruce.
Ted Markland
as 'Reno' in The High Chaparral
The Filmmaker
WRITER/DIRECTOR, CHRIS CAMPION, IS A BRITISH AUTHOR, JOURNALIST, EDITOR AND MUSIC PRODUCER LIVING IN THE MOJAVE DESERT, NEAR JOSHUA TREE.
He has written for publications that include THE GUARDIAN, THE TIMES (UK), LOS ANGELES TIMES, ROLLING STONE, NME, DAZED & CONFUSED and VICE. He is the creator and ghost-writer (for former porn star SASHA GREY) of THE JULIETTE SOCIETY (Grand Central), the co-author of SOME NEW KIND OF KICK (Hachette), a memoir by guitarist KID CONGO POWERS,
and the author of WOLFKING, a forthcoming biography of
JOHN PHILLIPS of THE MAMAS & THE PAPAS.